When it comes to great skin care, women often ask if they can wash their face with “soap”. The answer depends on the definition of “soap”. If the beauty bar used contains detergents, sodium Lauryl Sulfate, or other chemicals, then skin will feel dry and rough. While what is in the bar is important, what is not in the bar is just as important.

Most commercial products for washing your face and body are produced using the a continuous fully boiled process. In this process, the oils, fats, and other reactants are brought to a full boil for saponification. Once saponified, salt in introduced to the process and the excess liquid drained off. This excess liquid carries away with it much of the impurities and color compounds in the fat. It also removes practically all the natural glycerine created by the process of saponification.

Glycerine has an important quality when it come to the care of your skin. Glycerine has the ability to attract and hold water molecules from the surrounding environment. Glycerine is used in medical and pharmaceutical and personal care products, mainly as a means of improving smoothness, providing lubrication and as a humectant. It is an important ingredient in soap because it prevents skin dryness with its moisturizing properties. It draws moisture up through skin layers and slows or prevents excessive drying and evaporation. Topical pure or nearly pure glycerine is said to be an effective treatment for psoriasis, burns, bites, cuts, rashes, bedsores, and calluses. So if the beauty bar you use has had the glycerine removed and contains detergents, then it will leave your skin feeling dry and rough.

But what about artisan soaps like Green Hill Soaps? We make soaps using the “cold-process”. Our oils and butters are not boiled in the process of making our soaps. This has two very important benefits for your skin. First, all the glycerine produced in the process of making our soap, remains in the soap and available to your skin. Second, artisan soap makers tend to add a bit more oil and a bit less lye, to ensure all the lye is consumed in the saponification process. The result is that there is an excess of oil when the soap is made and that is called “superfatted”. The excess oil provides skin conditioning benefits, especially if the soap is made with significant amounts of olive, castor, or coconut oil, or shea butter.

If you use a soap with natural glycerine and superfatted with quality conditioning oils, then your face and skin should feel smooth, soft and invigorated. If not, well you know how that feels.

This is a question we get asked by people who have never used a real soap. What do I mean by real soap? Real soap is made from natural oils and not from synthetic detergents. Synthetic detergents were designed to help water react with oil, making the oil easier to remove. This is particularly useful if you are cleaning a car engine or removing industrial oils from a machine. It is less useful if the surface being stripped of oil is your skin. Think of the phrase ” squeaky clean”; the squeak comes from the removal of oils from the surface of your skin.

Real soap is made from a wide range of natural oils and butters. Real soap does not strip away the natural oils from your skin. The ingredients in real soap have a range of beneficial qualities that are know to be good for you skin. For example, olive oil , castor oil , and avocado oil , are known for their moisturizing and therapeutic qualities. The same is true of shea and cocoa butters. This is one reason why you can wash your face with real soap, leaving your face feeling soft and smooth; while synthetic detergent bars leave your face feeling dry and rough.

Real soap will be made with a high percentage of these beneficial natural oils and will not contain sodium laurel sulfate or sodium tallowate ( beef/lamb tallow). When you use real soap, you may feel like there is something on you skin after washing. There is, it is the natural oil of you skin and a trace amount of the beneficial oils from the real soap.

At Green Hill Soaps, we want our customers to know what is in the soap they use. The ingredients are included in the description of each product. If you look through our Soap Facts , you can find more information about each ingredient and links to additional information.

Please join us in a conversation about your skin, your soap and your beauty needs. The more we know about you, the better our soap can be. We are committed to providing great soap for beautiful skin. As we like to say: